1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method and apparati for preparing and displaying dough-based products.
2. Description of Related Art
Consumers throughout the U.S. and Canada, and increasingly throughout other parts of the world, have developed an affinity for donuts. While traditionally a morning food in conjunction with beverages such as tea or coffee, donuts have become a popular snack item that can be consumed at virtually any time of the day. In fact, many shops that manufacture and sell donuts continue to extend their operating hours in order to accommodate the public's around-the-clock demand for fresh donuts.
Concurrently, the popularity and number of convenience-type markets/stores, as well as quick-service restaurants, has also increased over the past decades. These types of retail establishments generally cater to consumers who desire food that can be prepared quickly and/or consumed in the vicinity of the retail establishment, especially during early morning and late night hours when traditional restaurants and grocery stores are closed. Convenience stores typically stock a number of staple items such as milk, cheese, coffee, soda, beer and snack foods, and also sell a wide variety of prepackaged foods that are refrigerated or frozen, and that can be quickly prepared in microwave ovens on the premises or at home. Quick-service restaurants offer a limited menu and are designed to allow workers to prepare and serve food quickly.
Space limitations and preparation requirements in convenience stores and in quick-service restaurants are important considerations in the determination of whether to offer a given line of food products or menu items. Food products that require an extensive amount of equipment or preparation by store personnel often do not generate sufficient revenues to offset the necessary space and/or required personnel expense.
In the case of "fresh-baked" goods, such as donuts and pastries, the considerable equipment and trained personnel required for commercial production of these products virtually prohibits their production in a convenience store or a quick-service restaurant environment. With respect to donuts, the cooking processes involve measuring ingredients, mixing dough, shaping the dough, allowing the dough to rise, deep-frying the donut dough in extremely hot oil and topping and/or filling the cooked donut. Especially with respect to the use of large quantities of extremely hot oil, these operations require extensive equipment and a number of specially trained personnel, both of which are commonly absent in the typical convenience store or quick-service restaurant.
One solution to these space and personnel limitations has been to prepare donuts and other such pastry products off-premises and then shipping these products to the convenience store for display and sale. However, there are a number of disadvantages inherent to such off-premises production and shipment of "fresh-baked" goods. Most significantly, "fresh-baked" products have an extremely limited shelf-life after production. With respect to donuts, after only a few minutes the donut begins to cool. Subsequently, the outer crust of the donut dries and hardens, and after several hours the donut is usually stale and offers little consumer appeal. Heating the donut for an extended period of time during display also increases the speed at which the donut dries and hardens, further shortening the already limited shelf-life of the donut. Conversely, refrigeration of the finished donuts may extend the shelf life, but almost immediately eliminates the hot "fresh-baked" quality desired by consumers. In addition, as a result of their extremely limited shelf life, those donuts not sold within a few hours of manufacture and/or shipment are typically discarded. These problems are exacerbated where preservatives are not used in the production of the donut.
Another problem associated with off-premises production and shipment of finished donuts is the inflexibility of this procedure to fluctuations in demand. The retailer must estimate donut sales at least a day, if not more, in advance of the actual shipment date from the manufacturer. Moreover, in order to accommodate unanticipated consumer demand, the retailer is forced to order an amount of donuts exceeding this estimate. However, if actual sales do not meet these estimates, as is often the case, the unsold donuts must be discarded, as they cannot be stored for later sale and usually cannot be returned to the manufacturer for credit.
Finishing the donuts also is a learned art. For instance, the process of glazing a donut requires a skilled artisan. The "glazer" uses a tool similar to that shown in FIG. 1. The tool includes a pair of hinged walls that pivot to vary an opening formed at the lower end of the walls. A reservoir is formed between the walls when the lower ends of the walls are brought together. A spring normally biases the walls into this position.
The glazer fills the tool with glaze by opening the lower ends of the walls and dipping them into a bath of glaze. The walls are closed to capture a volume of glaze between the walls in the reservoir. The glazer then passes the tool over a rack of donuts while allowing the glaze to flow from the lower end of the tool and coat the donuts.
The tool is awkward to use, however, and only after extensive experience can the glazer produce a smooth flow of glaze from the tool in order to evenly coat the donuts. The tool, when used by unskilled or less experienced employees, typically produces an uneven flow of glaze which tends to "collect" at various points along the tool's lower end, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Only by holding open the walls by a desired amount, by tilting the tool by a desired degree, and by slinging the tool at a particular acceleration across the rack of donuts can the skilled glazer produce an even flow of glaze from the tool. This learned combination of simultaneously performed motions requires extensive experience to master.
Glazing donuts in convenient-type stores or quick-service restaurants thus becomes impractical using the prior tool because of the high degree of skill required to use the tool and the relatively high turn-over rate of employees who work in such stores. Accordingly, such finishing steps have previously been performed at a centralized facility or a dedicated donut shop that produce a volume of donuts sufficient to justify employing a skilled glazer.